Ravens coach John Harbaugh pulls prank on parents

So fervent is the interest in the Harbaugh household that the rest of the family -- parents Jack and Jackie and sister Joani -- met the Super Bowl press Thursday morning. The most probing question came from the line of "John from Baltimore."

"Is it true that both of you liked Jim better than John?," he asked.

Stunned silence ... then laughter.

Yep, it was John Harbaugh sneaking in a little family prank. Joani recognized the voice just before mom lost her cool. Jack thought his wife might "jump through this phone" to throttle the reporter.

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John laughed, too, before hanging up. "That's the fighting spirit," he said. "That's all I needed to know. I just needed to hear that."

Score this round for big brother. Perhaps Jim Harbaugh has a countermove in store before his 49ers face the Ravens in Super Bowl XLVII on Feb. 3.

With their phone ringing off the hook in their Mequon, Wisc., home, Jack and Jackie consented to a national conference call conducted by the NFL. That way, they could answer all the questions at once -- about their hyper-competitive boys, their family slogans ("Who's got it better than us?") and, of course, which boy they liked best.

Jackie, who plans on wearing the most neutral color she can find to the game, said she was "Just happy for to see her sons bring their teams to the pinnacle of their sport."

Jack, who coached for 43 years, said "the greatest joy I've gotten in my life" is that his

boys chose to follow him into the profession, even after a lifetime of ups and downs that included relocating the family 17 times.

Jack, 73, recalled a stop in University of Iowa, where he was an assistant coach from 1971-73. They drove the kids to school in the freezing cold and both boys had their hats pulled down as they shivered in the back seat. Mom and dad turned around to see these "sad, sad faces."

"So we told them, 'Attack this day with an enthusiasm known to mankind. And don't take any wooden nickels,' " Jack Harbaugh recalled.

And though the wooden nickel reference has faded over time, Jim and John have incorporated the message about enthusiasm into coaching careers that have them facing off for football's ultimate prize.

Both coaches made monumental changes to their teams during the regular season. Jim switched 49ers quarterbacks from Alex Smith to Colin Kaepnernick. John changed offensive coordinators from Cam Cameron to Jim Caldwell.

Their dad applauded both moves.

"When you get down to it, those daily decisions are what the coaching business is all about," he said. --You have to make a decision and there's a right way and a wrong way. The question always is: Will this make us better?

"Sometimes it's clear cut and sometimes it's unclear. But you just go ahead and make it."